Of course the move is primarily economic “saving about 80,000 pounds, or nearly $116,000, annually.” However, animal rights activists will also be pleased in that it will save the 130 calves whose skins go into producing a 500 page book.

But vellum still has its defenders.“If the Magna Carta had been on paper, it would have long ago been a bag of dust,” said Paul Wright, the general manager ofWilliam Cowley, which has been supplying vellum for Parliament.